Navionics Charts?

[noreault]

I am looking at the Fugawi software and am presented with 3 choices on charting for Vancouver Island East. The first two are CHS BSB ($174) and CHS S-57 ($599). I understand the technical differences and am wondering everyone's opinion on the added value of the S-57 verses $425.

The third choice is Navionics Gold+ at $194 for a much larger area of coverage. I am able to find very little information on the format or detail of the charts. It appears they are not official charts and have been privately produced. This is not a great concern since I carry paper charts, but I have no idea as to detail or accuracy of the charts or for that matter the format they use. It appears to be vector, but doesn't say. thanks.

[brak]

As far as I know Navionics sell vector charts. There are Navionics ENCs which are presumably the same S57 format charts technically, with some additional objects (primarily marina services and tide stations which are not included in "official" S57 charts).

As far as accuracy or detail - there is a "lot of stuff there" but I did not compare them item by item, obviously so I can't say how far off from reality either type is.

[rikhall]

I have used FUGAWI for ten years - I personally love it and do not work for the company.

I was going to ask a similar question, but thought I would share what I have been using.

OK - I use MapTech BSB charts and NDI charts and find they work just fine. Have used them in eastern Canada and all up and down the coast of Maine.

I also use ENC (S-57) charts and they work good too.

So - here is where we wait and see what others recommend.

If you get an AIS receiver (about $200.00) FUGAWI's ENC version works great and all those ships out there with AIS transmitters show up right on the screen.

Rik

[labatt]

Navionics has excellent support. If you call them and have a specific area that you'd like to compare to your paper charts, they may take a screenshot and send it to you. I'm using Navionics S-57 charts from Chartworld of the Bahamas, and they seem pretty decent, although we're using our eyes quite extensively here too

[brak]

Originally Posted by labatt

Navionics has excellent support. If you call them and have a specific area that you'd like to compare to your paper charts, they may take a screenshot and send it to you. I'm using Navionics S-57 charts from Chartworld of the Bahamas, and they seem pretty decent, although we're using our eyes quite extensively here too

Would you mind sharing their support phone number? Using email so far we were unable to get anyone to reply (with repeated attempts to different addresses).

Of course we are not an end customer, and we were looking for information on their modifications to S57 (to add support for Navionics-specific data to our product). That said, they should, in theory, be interested to help - since this may potentially result in more sales of their charts.

[theartfuldodger]

I use a RayMarine Chart Ploter, with Navionics flash cards, with the recent purchase of a Fugawi software program which has a reader for my flash cards I have found I've saved myself about 1,000 dollars in not having to purchase some other system. One of the features I like is that there is all kinds of information about ports, anchorages, custom offices, it also permits all the features of route planning not to mention a lot more features.

[labatt]

Just call their main # at 800-848-5896 and ask for sales or support. I've found that e-mail rarely works in a timely fashion, so I usually just call the main number for whatever company I have questions for.